Tag: Philanthropy

In this episode of the Journey of My Mother’s Son podcast, I talk with Christian Ray Flores.

Christian was born in Moscow, Russia to a Chilean father and a Russian mother. The family moved to Chile when Christian was nine months old.

During the 1973 military coup of Augusto Pinochet, Christian’s father, Americo Flores, was arrested along with thousands of others and spent time in one of the infamous concentration camps. His mother Larisa and two children went into hiding under an assumed name and with a fake Argentinian passport. After Americo’s release, the family spent some time in a UN refugee camp and was granted asylum in Germany, moving to Munich. After living in Germany and Russia, Americo and Larisa moved to Mozambique, at the government’s invitation, which was recruiting international professionals after a mass exodus of Portuguese upon the nation’s independence. Christian learned four languages by age nine: Russian, Spanish, English, and Portuguese. After his parents’ divorce, Christian returned to Russia with his mother and sister in 1983. Christian got a master’s degree in economics in 1991 from the RUDN University in Moscow.